A great deal of software technology exists that allows users to participate in video conference sessions and other types of multi-user communication exchanges. Microsoft® Lync®, Skype®, Google® Hangouts, and IBM® Sametime are only a few examples of technology offerings in the marketplace today.
Users typically participate in such sessions through an application client running on their own device. A familiar scenario might involve users engaging in a video conference with each other from their desks or individual work space via a client running on their desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, or mobile phone.
However, another familiar scenario might involve users gathering in a meeting space, such as a conference room or huddle, from where they connect to other users remote from the meeting space. In these situations, a lead participant may plug-in his or her device to multi-media equipment in the space, such as a video capture device and a display, so that the local scene may be captured for those participating remotely. Should others in the room also want to join-in online, they would need to join the online meeting by clicking on a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the lead participant, for example.
Advanced meeting technology has been developed to allow users to hold ad-hoc online meetings from a meeting space without having to bring their own device to the space. The Lync® Room System (LRS) from Microsoft® is just one example of such a meeting system that serves as its own node in an online meeting. Users can simply enter a room where the LRS is available and installed and begin meeting with other participants.
While such systems reduce the need for users to bring their own device to a meeting, some may also want to participate in the session using their own device. For instance, a user may want to download content that is being presented, share their own content, or chat with others who are engaged in the meeting.
In order for a user to join an ongoing meeting in an ad-hoc fashion, the user has to have knowledge of the identity of the room in which the meeting is occurring, or more likely, the identity of the meeting system associated with the room. The identity of the space or the room would then be used by the user's client to call into or otherwise join the meeting. Once joined to the meeting, the user would be able to participate through his or her client to consumer and share content, for example, while still also participating in the session through the meeting system in the room.